Vision
by Animegirl1129
Summary: Takes place just after 'Fade Out'. Eric helps Ryan when he finds out that he could lose his vision. Enjoy!


-Vision-

**Eric takes care of Ryan after finding out h could lose his vision. Characters not mine. Enjoy! Implied Eric/Speed, and Eric/Ryan if you squint your eyes just right.**

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Eric spotted his friend seated at the bar, his head resting on his crossed arms. "Hey, Wolfe," He called, sliding into place on the stool beside him. "You alight?" 

"Yeah." Ryan mumbled, not even acknowledging the older man's presence. "Just fine."

"How long have you been here, man?"

Three empty beer bottles sat before the rookie C.S.I. "A while."

"I heard you were in a car accident today." Eric's hand fell to rest on the other's shoulder, trying to figure out where he stood with him. "You weren't hurt, were you?" As far as he could see Ryan didn't appear injured, but there was always his eye…

As if reading his mind, Ryan looked up. "I'm... loosing my vision."

"I thought you were on more antibiotics? Alexx prescribed you some, didn't she?" Concern laced his voice; he still blamed himself for what had happened, it was supposed to be his crime scene after all..

"The accident today… H' sent me to the doctor. She said I have an infection that the meds I was on weren't effecting. If these new ones don't work, the next option's surgery. And if that fails… I'm screwed, Eric."

He pulled the other man out of his seat. "Let me take you home. You shouldn't be drinking with your pills."

Ryan tried to pull himself away, only succeeding in stumbling over his own feet and, and had Eric not been supporting him, he would have fallen to the ground. "I don't want to go home."

"Fine. Your crashing on my couch, then." He was forced to physically drag his friend out of the bar, leading him to the passengers seat, suddenly overtaken by a feeling of déjà vu. Aside from the lack of a nail embedded in Ryan's right eye, he'd basically just reenacted the moments when he'd found him at that crime scene.

They sat in absolute silence for several minutes as Eric drove them back to his condo. But, the lack of noise was getting to the younger man. "I don't wanna lose my job, Eric. I just got here…"

"Hey, don't stress yourself out. That's not something you need on your shoulders right now. You need to focus on getting better." Eric reminded him.

"I… I can't help it! I'm used to planning things out, and I can't do that with my eye like this. I hate all this. I wish… I just wish I could re-do that whole freaking day." His leaned his head against the window, staring out into the Miami night.

The rest of the ride was met with companionable silence as they arrived at Eric's home, the younger C.S.I following him inside.

"Thanks for letting me crash here."

Eric shrugged, dropping his keys on the table by the door. "No problem. I don't think anyone from the lab has stayed here since…"

Ryan's eyes flickered up to meet the others. "Since Speedle?"

"Yeah…"

"I'm sorry."

"It's been two years."

The younger took a seat on the couch, Eric flopping himself down in the chair next to it. "That doesn't make loosing someone you're close to any easier."

"No one gets it. Speed and I… we were… together." Eric admitted the truth that had been weighing on his mind since his lover's death. "Not even H knew."

"I never would have guessed," Ryan replied, honestly stunned. He knew the two had been close, Eric had despised him for some time simply because he was taking Speedle's place. It wasn't really fair to him to be blamed for accepting the job Horatio had offered. He'd had no intention of trying to replace the CSI, he'd just wanted to do his job. At least now he understood why.

"Look, Ryan, I'm sorry about the way I acted when you first got here. I was a total jackass. And, even given the fact that Speed was mine, it didn't give me the right to treat you the way I did." He shrugged, that apology was long overdue.

The younger man shook his head. "It's over. We're friends now, right? That's what matters. You guys didn't really have a lot of time before H threw me into the mix."

"But, still… it wasn't until all this," Ryan knew without it being said that 'this' was referring to his eye. "Until all this that we even became friends. And it shouldn't have taken that long."

Ryan shrugged in acceptance of the apology, his hand falling to rest on the elder CSI's knee. "We're cool, Delko. Don't worry about it."

Eric clapped him on the back. "I'll go get you a blanket and a spare pillow so you can crash, okay?" And he was out of the room before the younger man could respond.

"Mm…" He fell back onto the comfortable couch suddenly overwhelmed with exhaustion. He was out by the time the other returned.

"He must've been really out of it." Eric shook his head at the figure sleeping quietly in front of him. He draped the blanket over the still frame and managed to get the pillow under his head without waking him, also tugging off the man's shoes.

"Nnng." Ryan groaned, burrowing further into the comfort of the covers.

Eric guessed that was a sleep obscured 'goodnight' and let out a soft laugh. "Good night to you, too, Wolfe." He rolled his eyes, watching his friend for a moment before heading to his own room to get some sleep.

And, yeah, it was weird to have someone staying there again, Eric thought, as he tugged his shirt over his head, but at least it was someone he cared about again. No one could ever take Speed's place, but Ryan was helping to get him back to normal again.

And in the end, that was all that counted.


End file.
